Book recommendation: A Life With Footnotes

 The first book to recommend this year is the biography of Terry Pratchett. Many of you might know about me considering him to be my favourite author. Or rather have suffered through me rambling about random quotes from his books.

Reading the detailed account of his life, from the beginnings up to his tragic end, was enlightening and gave me much context. The author Rob Wilkins, Pterry's assistant of many years, did an excellent job of connecting us to the memory of an extraordinary crafter of worlds. It makes me want to read all Discworld books all over again.

Give it a try if you are curious as well.

Gelatoposting: Introduction

 Recently, I was somewhat jokingly asked about blogging about my ice cream / gelato favourites. As that's something easy to post, I will give it a try. I also tend to organise ice cream meetups at conferences, so it is a fitting theme for me.

You might find December to be a strange time for gelatoposting, but in my humble opinion, all times are gelato times. Just some people strangely think cold weather should keep you from cold food. Imagine your gelato not instantly melting.

Let's start with what I consider to be peak gelato: RivaReno Gelato, which I have personally sampled in Florence and Rome, but which apparently are around in other cities as well. If I had to point towards any place as "they are the best", it would be RivaReno.

They are of course not the only supreme gelato makers in Italy, but I have to start somewhere. I suggest you give them a try if you are around.

20 Years of Disorder: Retrospective

 The anniversary gig was epic, as we wanted it to be. Awesome crowd, we played comparatively well, and even survived being raided by Captain Merchandise and recurring nudists.

(Photo by Ulrike Vietauer)

Thanks again to Lights in Bambi's Garden and Salon for supporting us!

Many a T-shirt was sold, and we released a new song: Oberstleutnant Österreich, our... let's call it patriotic song.

At this opportunity, I want to reflect a bit on Gradient of Disorder. I am privileged to have found friends and bandmates to do music with for over twenty years now. Having the time, interest, and compatibility for that is not to be taken for granted.

That's why I chose "the turtle wins the race" as a tagline - we might not be especially fast or talented with our instruments, but we are still there. That makes me humble, proud, but mostly thankful for the support by our community and the friends made along the way.

I am already saving ideas for the 40 year anniversary.

Stay epic!

I got Stuff: The Cosmere RPG

 After a big Kickstarter, time passes before one gets their share of stuff, but my patience was rewarded. I got my books for the Sanderson Cosmere RPG, and what a haul it is:

Especially the "Stormlight"-style dice are a show and the print production value is very high. I hope I will find an opportunity to try it out not too far in the future.

To have a few words on the setting: The first wave of books brings core rules and setting details for Roshar, the world from the Stormlight books, where harsh weather forces humans to get creative and enduring to survive and prosper. Later waves will add other world and will be compatible rules-wise.

Stay epic!

I published some things: Autumn 2025

 This autumn brings officially published literature by me, but they are "just" work-related:

One paper primarily written by me explores the metabolic changes around visible brain tumours. I hope that more research could lead to an application in predicting the development of infiltrating brain tumours. As these are very deadly, any new insights could help to identify better treatments on the long run.

Another paper published by one of my students explores neurochemical changes in epilepsy, where we to be honest do not know much at all because this field has not been explored that much in living humans. But maybe my team can change that, givene nough time.

If you are not in neurosciences, these might not be the most exciting reads, but they do show what I am working on.

20 years of Disorder: 5.12.2025

 Yes, my band Gradient of Disorder is still around, more than 20 years to be precise. Because our anniversary was during my UK stay, the commemorative show had to wait, but soon it will be time:

The opening act will be a very special suprise even to the ones of you used to our usual madness. ;-)

Stay epic!

Recommendation: Menace from the Deep

To the surprise of nobody, I do like roguelite RPGs. I recently recommended Slay the Spire, for example. Now, I did find another game like that, Menace from the Deep. It is fundamentally a StS clone, but does a few nice spins on the game mechanics and uses a Lovecraftian setting to distinguish itself.

It might not be the most novel experience, but if you need something to do while waiting for Slay the Spire 2, you might enjoy this one as well.